Digital presence may be just one of three core marketing principles; branding and relationships being the other two. But in today’s increasingly mobile market and consumers that are constantly online, your business stands a good chance of making it big when you have digital presence. Because without it, your commercial venture might as well not exist.
But digital presence takes more than having a business website that is easy to navigate and appealing to explore. Your business needs to combine these three key online marketing pillars to generate the kind of results you want — from increased customers to a bigger business, and by extension, heftier profits.
1. Develop your online marketing strategy.
Every war is won with a carefully crafted strategy; no self-respecting general goes to war with just the uniform on his back, a weapon by his side, and an army of men behind him.
And when you’re trying to put your business ahead of the competition, it’s kind of like going to war. So your online marketing tactics should be based on solid strategy. Otherwise, every move you make will yield little to no results.
This involves market research so you have a definite understanding of your client, and a perfectly defined target market so that your efforts are focused — optimised. With proper market research, your business identifies what sets you apart from competitors. You’ll also identify the best channels—from pay-per-click marketing to social media marketing—that lead to achieved goals and objectives.
2. Implement a lead generation system.
Now that you have the right data and an appropriate strategy to use, it’s time to cash in and implement what you know. A good way of doing this is to establish a lead generation system that takes your prospect from one step to another, seamlessly; the final step being the holy grail of online marketing: purchasing.
This requires using every relevant channel for your marketing strategy. Create content and messaging that helps your prospect appreciate you expertise. Optimise your Web pages, landing pages, social media pages, and every other piece of content.
3. Adopt total online presence.
Your business has to be where your prospects are online. This means developing and creating a search engine optimisation plan so your website, blog, press releases, and the like are found on the Web. Total online presence also includes maximising the potential of social media for brand awareness, user engagement, and subsequently, sales.
To tie it all in, these three key online marketing pillars for your business should follow a calendar, which maps out all your activities — from what to post to when and how often you should post.
Again, such activities should reflect what your market research has uncovered to make sure that efforts are never wasted and results are always maximised.